6 state House members face primary challenges

While the presidential race has dominated news coverage before Tuesday's primary election, six hard-fought races for the state House will also be decided.

The marquee legislative battle in South Philadelphia and Center City is the three-way fight for the state Senate seat now held by Vince Fumo. But there's an undercard in the district: three House seats where longtime incumbents face strong challenges.

State House members from Germantown and the Frankford area are also confronted with opposition in the Democratic primary. And an unusual contest in Northeast Philadelphia has two experienced Democrats vying for the right to take on former state House Speaker John Perzel.

Here's a brief take on each contest:

South Philadelphia

The epic political feud of the past 10 years has been the bitter South Philadelphia rivalry between Fumo and union leader John Dougherty. It's being played out on a smaller stage as state Rep. Bill Keller, 57, from the Dougherty camp, seeks a ninth term in Harrisburg against Christian DiCicco, 35, a lawyer in the Fumo camp, the son of City Councilman Frank DiCicco.

DiCicco accuses Keller of failing to protect the interests of his district, missing critical votes on gun control, supporting casinos, and failing to support abortion rights and gay rights.

With heavy donations from the electricians union, Keller has fought back with full-page newspaper ads, attacking DiCicco's role in the Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, the nonprofit that figures heavily in Fumo's federal indictment.

DiCicco, the group's executive director the past two years, says it deserves credit for neighborhood improvements like the Passyunk Avenue business district.

Center City-South Philadelphia

Two young challengers are trying to send 67-year-old Babette Josephs into retirement after 24 years in the state House. A non-practicing lawyer with a solid liberal voting record, Josephs has been outspoken on abortion rights, gay rights, privacy and First Amendment issues - at one point, the only member of the House to oppose a mandatory Pledge of Allegiance for school children. She's got support in Center City's 8th Ward, where she lives, but the Democratic ward leaders in the district have declared it an open primary, a sign of her vulnerability.

Peggy Banaszek, 35, a business project manager, says she'd focus on the city's education problems, a key to both crime and economic development issues.

"Many of my friends are making hard decisions about whether to stay in the city because of the public schools," she says. "It's a real detriment to the economy, and if you look at the statistics on violence and muggings . . . a majority of the muggers are dropouts."

Bob Gormley, the 34-year-old leader of the Grays Ferry Community Council, promises to help Mayor Nutter get more state funding for public safety and lobby for the city regaining its own gun-control laws. Gormley is an electrician and part-time union official with Local 98, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which figures to be a strong election-day presence.

Point Breeze

In the mostly minority 186th District, running west of Broad Street through South Philadelphia, Point Breeze and portions of Southwest Philadelphia, 34-year-old Kenyatta Johnson is trying to unseat incumbent Rep. Harold James, 65, a retired police officer now completing his 10th term.

James knows more than most about the city's crime problems. His daughter was murdered, and he was shot in the shoulder as an off-duty cop while trying to break up a robbery at a Point Breeze beer distributor. He's now in charge of a gambling-oversight committee, which monitors the state's new casinos.

Johnson, a Point Breeze native, got himself elected student body president at Mansfield University and worked for state Sen. Anthony Williams until last year. He says the House district needs more leadership to coordinate the work of nonprofit groups and tackle issues contributing to crime - job training, education and unemployment.

Germantown

A history teacher at Germantown Friends School, Byron Davis, is challenging Rep. Rosita Youngblood's bid for an eighth term in the 198th district, stretching from Oak Lane to Chestnut Hill.

Davis, 43, is a co-founder of the Germantown Poetry Festival, bringing together youths from both public and private schools. He says the Germantown business corridor needs the kind of revitalization that state Rep. Dwight Evans put together for Ogontz Avenue in Oak Lane. But the district has suffered, Davis contends, because of Youngblood's spats with House leaders in her own party.

Youngblood, 61, says she's been a leader dealing with parental rights, foster care and related family issues. She claims endorsements from all but one of the wards in her district. But Davis has lined up an unusual array of support from labor unions and civic groups.

Frankford

State Rep. Tony Payton Jr. barely won his rookie term two years ago, after several Democratic ward leaders waged an aggressive write-in campaign against him. Payton's still opposed by the same ward leaders, and they've recruited a strong candidate, Guy D. Lewis, an Army-trained nurse who saw combat duty in the first Gulf War, now working in the emergency room at Temple University Hospital.

Payton, 27, has a couple of ward leaders in his corner and two years' experience working on crime and education issues. He says his biggest accomplishment is House passage of a new college scholarship program.

Lewis, 53, is interested in creating a system of community-based "wellness centers" to provide health services to the unemployed and the uninsured working poor.

Northeast Philadelphia

Richard Costello, who retired from the police force last year after 15 years as a leader of the Fraternal Order of Police, is vying with Tim Kearney, a former City Council aide and executive director of the Action Alliance of Senior Citizens, for the Democratic nomination to take on Perzel next November.

Kearney, 56, opposed Perzel in the last two elections, when he still held the speakership. Kearney got 25 percent of the vote in the 2004 general election and 30 percent in 2006.

Costello, 57, was recruited by several Democratic ward leaders and is expected have organization backing. *